Ready or Not?

     Let me preface today's blog post by saying that I absolutely acknowledge the importance of reading and writing, for both children and adults. I believe that reading has the ability to inform us, transport us, and empower us. I am an avid reader, and in my ideal universe, everyone else would experience the love I have for literature. As a future teacher, I will do whatever I can to help my students achieve that--and I know that some students will need extra support.

     Catching Readers Before They Fall by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier does an excellent job of providing ideas and insight for early childhood and elementary teachers in the trenches, trying valiantly to ensure that all students are successful readers. It's an incredibly informative book--I highly recommend it.

     There's just one point that I am unclear about: who are the struggling readers and how do we identify them? Where is the fine line drawn between a child labeled a "hardest-to-teach" student, and a child who is not yet ready for formal reading instruction? Catching Readers appears to take the stance that all children are ready for instruction. In their chapter about Vygotskian theory, a distinction is made between Piaget's belief in stages of child development and Vygotsky's idea that what a child can't learn alone, he can learn from an experienced other. Catching Readers uses David Wood's 1998 study of mothers teaching their toddlers complex puzzle construction to illustrate Vygotsky's theory. While the three-year-olds couldn't assemble the block pyramid independently (in fact, the study says that this activity could not be performed by children under seven), they could complete the puzzle with support from attentive mothers.

     Can this example be applied to reading instruction? Should it be? The children in Wood's study would eventually be able to assemble the puzzles when they reach the developmentally appropriate age for the activity (8+). What benefit do they receive from assembling the puzzle at a much earlier age? Likewise, with the push for reading instruction coming earlier and earlier (see: Your Baby Can Read), how do our children benefit from literacy instruction at age three--or younger? Conversely, is it really so detrimental to them if formal reading instruction is introduced in kindergarten or first grade?

     In the case of early childhood, are we catching readers before they fall? Or are we catching readers before they're ready? When are struggling readers simply reflecting expectations that are out of touch with developmental appropriateness?